New! Spoon cake combines blackberries, blueberries
Make the most of cooler weather before another heat wave
Relief from triple-digit temperatures coming this weekend, but smoky skies may linger
Patricia Carpenter welcomes visitors to her garden Sunday, Aug. 4
Discolored berries are another example of crops affected by intense summer heat
Triple-digit temperatures and smoky conditions can create high pollutant levels
El Dorado County master gardeners offer free workshop at Sherwood Demonstration Garden
Summer stone fruit flavors a quick-cooking sauce
Try to stay cool; relief is on its way
Surviving triple-digit temperatures comes down to moisture, mulch
Master gardeners field queries from State Fair visitors
Don’t let bindweed overwhelm your garden; tips on how to cope with this invasive plant
Tiny pests thrive during hot, dry, dusty conditions
Add a rainbow of color to your water-wise garden with easy-care bearded irises
New! Banana blueberry pancakes (with one banana lots of blueberries).
After record-setting heat, Sacramento gardeners may be getting a break
Tips to rescue vegetables, shrubs, container plants and more after too much sun, heat
Free event includes speakers, demonstrations, vendors
How to give bees a hand and pollinate squash, cucumber, melon and pumpkin flowers
Placer County master gardeners also host monthly Open Garden at Loomis Library.
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Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 5
Take advantage of this break between storm systems to give your garden some much-needed TLC.
* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.
* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback. Save them until summer.) Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease.
* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.
* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.
* Apply horticultural oil to fruit trees soon after a rain to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.
* This is also the time to spray a copper-based fungicide to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl. (The safest effective fungicides available for backyard trees are copper soap -- aka copper octanoate -- or copper ammonium, a fixed copper fungicide. Apply either of these copper products with 1% horticultural oil to increase effectiveness.)
* When forced bulbs sprout, move them to a cool, bright window. Give them a quarter turn each day so the stems will grow straight.
* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.
* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.
* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.
* Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.
* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.
* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.
* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.
* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranuculous and gladiolus for bloom from late spring into summer.
* Plant blooming azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. If you’re shopping for these beautiful landscape plants, you can now find them in full flower at local nurseries.
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